Tuesday, December 10, 2013

I’ve just returned from a week of meetings of indigenous
interfaith representatives in Tepoztlan, Morelos,
Mexico.This was a follow-up meeting to the one in Guatemala
on which Rachael reported last January.

At that previous meeting a group of representatives of many indigenous
spiritualities agreed that there are a significant number of issues and
concerns that have not adequately been addressed by the existing large
interfaith groups – the United Religions Initiative, the Parliament of the
World’s Religions, et al. – and that probably could not be addressed in these organizations in the near future.Accordingly, many felt the need for a new, independent, global organization
focusing on the unique challenges and opportunities of indigenous
spiritualities as its primary concern.There is always room for more at the interfaith table and we hope that a
new group like this will be welcomed; there will probably be many people who
will hold membership in other interfaith groups as well as this new one.

This meeting in Mexico
was a working group of individuals selected to come up with drafts of a name
for the group, a description, a vision, a mission, principles, a logo,
organizational design, membership, etc. – all to be circulated to the folks who
were at the Guatemala
meeting for comment, discussion, input, and further conversation.We plan to have a meeting in 2014 at which
the final versions of all these aspects of the new group would be confirmed.

Since the new group has not yet decided on a name, nor yet
had a chance to receive and consider the name we are proposing, for now I will
just refer to is as “the new group”. The intent is to create a new,
global, indigenous networking group, focused on indigenous spirituality, that
will stand on its own – in relationship with, but not under the authority of,
the other large interfaith groups like the URI or
the Parliament; as Yoland said: “To continue to build on the work that
started as was prophesied of coming together to build an integrated new
tomorrow where (symbolized by the four colors of the corn) yellow, brown, black
and white races will join to work in harmony.”

The working group for this stage consisted of myself (Witch
/ USA), Yoland Trevino
(indigenous Maya / USA),
Raul Mamani (indigenous Kolla / Argentina),
and Tata Apollinario Pixtun (indigenous Maya / Guatemala). We met at the
home of former URI Trustee
Jonathan Rose and his wife Margarita. (Back in February 2011, I posted
several reports to this blog about an earlier URI
meeting held here.)

Tata noted that: “The new organization began in December
2012, with the coming together of a new Baqtunic era of the merging of the
Eagle, the Condor and the Quetzalcoatl (feathered Serpent) to actualize the prophesies
that exist in many indigenous communities such as the Maya, the Hopi, the
Aborigines in Australia and many more."

Most of the first day – Wednesday – was spent getting
everyone to Jonathan’s. With numerous delayed and even canceled flights,
Yoland, Raul, Tata, and I found each other in the Mexico City airport over the span of nine
hours. As the time passed and we waited for word of Tata, we started
contemplating spending the night on the airport sofas.I arrived at 2:53pm
and Tata didn’t get into the Mexico City airport
until 10 minutes after midnight...
20 minutes before the last bus to Cuernavaca, our next stop,
pulled out! Two hours later, we met Jonathan and Margarita in Cuernavaca for a half-hour
drive to their house.

Driving through Mexico
City in the middle of the night was very strange – with
the streets looking like set pieces out of a Val Lewton film. There were
no lit windows looking out onto the mostly-deserted streets. Doors and
windows had metal shutters pulled down over them. Here and there, bits of
light could be seen sneaking around the doors to enclosed compounds.
While now and then there would be a street-light, businesses don’t leave lights
on inside their stores like so many do in the US. It gave the city a singularly
empty, apocalyptic feeling and I could well imagine zombies stalking down the
streets – so unlike the vibrant street life during the day.

Jonathan's Tea House

By the time I got to bed it was after 4am, but fortunately no one was inclined to get
up too early and I slept in ‘til 10am
on THURSDAY. The cathedral around the corner conveniently rings the time
on its bells every 15 minutes – but I slept through it without trouble.
We started with a meditation in Jonathan’s secret tea house, hidden behind a
wall at the back of his garden.

Tata's ceremony - two fires.

This was followed by a Mayan ceremony led by Tata. I
wore my cord as a Gardnerian and a hat loaned by Jonathan, since head coverings
for men are preferred in Tata’s practice. When the time came for individual
prayers, I offered a modified version of the Wican “Dryghton Blessing”.
All of us were giving thanks for managing to finally make it to this place and
asking blessings on the work we would be doing over the next few days and in
the future.

After a wonderful breakfast, prepared by Jonathan’s wife
Margarita and housekeeper Gudelia, Jonathan showed us around, since Tata had
not been here before.Jonathan took
great pleasure in showing me the new sign outside his kitchen door – a witch on
a broom with a switchable sign saying "The Witch is in / out.”It became a ritual for me to change the sign
every time we gathered for meals.

Work on the veranda.

We got to work around a table on the veranda of Jonathan’s
guest house, outside Yoland’s room.Tata
and Yoland had brought gifts of sweets wrapped in colored leaves and
traditional cloth.While this veranda is
a very nice place to work, it can also be distracting, since the view of the
surrounding mountains, with the pyramid of Tepozteco over all, is spectacular.

The mountains above Tepoztlan -- white pyramid in the center.

Jonathan was our host, but also helped with
translation.Raul and Tata speak their
own languages and Spanish.Yoland and Jonathan
speak Spanish and English.I speak
English and can understand a lot of Spanish, but cannot speak it fast enough
for conversation.Also, Tata’s Spanish
is heavily accented by his native Mayan and can sometimes be difficult for me
to catch.

We started by reviewing the long history of indigenous
organizing that had led to this point, including local work in Latin America,
connections made through various URI
entities (the Indigenous & Earth Wisdom MCCs, the Spirituality & the
Earth CC, and the Global Indigenous Initiative), connections made through the
Indigenous Forum at the United Nations and affiliated groups, the work of the
Lost & Endangered Religions Project, and several other organizations, but
all coming back to personal relationships that had been forged over the
years.We shared our personal stories of
involvement in indigenous organizing.All of us expressed concern over the simultaneous de-valuing of
traditional wisdom in our own communities while at the same time the New Age
market creates a financial incentive for watered-down, corrupted versions of
that wisdom to be packaged and sold to the public.

Getting to work.

After lunch, we reconvened in Yoland’s room, where we could
put papers up on the walls and an easel for easier discussion.

Yoland asked each of us to answer four questions:•
Name, organizations that we represent, and personal experiences

•
What do I offer our group?

•
What hopes do I bring to this meeting?

• What would I like to have achieved after the meeting?

We went around the circle deosil (and all commented on how
weird it is that interfaith groups seem to always go counter-clockwise in their
meetings).Each of us spoke about the
paths that had led us here, our enthusiasm for and heart-felt connection to
this work, the connections we have within our own communities, our concerns
regarding the enormity of the task of creating a truly global network with what
seems a paucity of resources, and how much we hoped to get done in just a few
days.

It seemed that each person came back to their own culture’s
version of the aphorism: “Never doubt that a small group of committed people
can change the world… because it’s the only thing that ever has.”Raul spoke of this in terms of being in
alignment with the Mother.Yoland used a
metaphor of a stone dropped in a pool of water creating ripples.I suggested that we think more of a drop of
water creating ripples, since the drop becomes part of the substance being
rippled.

After hearing the answers from Jonathan, Tata, and Raul, our
exhaustion from the previous day of travel was catching up to us (and it was
three hours later by Raul’s internal clock), so we broke for dinner and bed.

FRIDAY opened with a meditation in Jonathan’s tea-house,
followed by a healing treatment from Tata.(Many readers know that Tata has been treating me for the results of s
surgical accident in 2007 that has severely limited my activities.His treatments have been the only things that
have produced lasting effects.My
neurologist says, “Do whatever he says!”).After some divination, some ceremony, and some “Maya-practy” bodywork,
we went for breakfast.

We resumed our meeting and Yoland and I answered the four
questions.Yoland and I both spoke about
walking in two worlds – that of indigenous spirituality and that of the
corporate, technocratic West.We both
spoke of our experience with non-profit organizations and about our own
organizations.She founded the Pasadena / Altadena
Coalition of Transformative Leaders (PACTL, pactl.org) and has worked with the
United Nations, among others.I founded
the Lost & Endangered Religions project and have contributed a lot to the
Bylaws and organizational design of several organizations.Both of us have extensive experience in the URI – Yoland was Global Council Chair for two terms
and I am the only Trustee to have served on all four terms of the Global
Council.Both of us have access to
funders, resources, and world-wide contacts.

After this, the discussion ranged organically over several
topics:

* How did this group relate to the meeting in Guatemala? This was a more focused group intended to draft core concepts to take back to the folks who had been at the Guatemala meeting
for their consideration, discussion, and input.Nothing would be final until the whole group agreed.

* How would we be making decisions?By consensus.(BTW, I had said earlier that one of the things that I brought to this
group was CoG’s experience being a national network preserving maximal local
autonomy, yet functioning in a Western world; that we had learned simple ways
of adapting, and that one of these was twinkling.Rachel and I had tried to introduce twinkling
before, but this group took to it right away.)

* How would membership work?Would we have individual members?Organizational members?Both?What would the likely
criteria be?

* Indigenous organizations have always had difficulties with
communication.Electronic communication
is necessary over such large distances, but many people do not have internet
capability, or if they do, they don’t have reliable infrastructure supporting it
where they live.

* We discussed possible names for this new group.After some time, we came up with a name that
is simple, poetic, evocative, and should translate easily into many
languages.It will be circulated among
the members of the Guatemala
group for comments and, hopefully, approval.

* Tata shared several proposals for local projects:

-- When a
local group found that plants needed for ceremony were becoming extinct, they
organized the creation of their own gardens where such plants could be grown for
ceremony and the excess packaged and sold.

-- A
similar project was created to make the special fabrics for ceremonial garb.

-- There were
similar projects for traditional arts, music, stories, etc.

Tata told us that he had written down all the traditional
lore that he had been taught in 14 volumes in Spanish.These had been translated into English, but
the Spanish version had been lost (under complicated circumstances).He showed us a sample of a couple of the
chapters.As I flipped through this,
marveling at the intricate Mayan designs, he said that there was only one copy
of the English translation!As I started
crying / screaming inside, I calmly told Tata that the Lost & Endangered
Religions project would be very happy to come down, scan & transcribe the
English texts, and maintain copies in a separate location – all for his use
only, unless he said otherwise.I
couldn’t believe that this treasure of traditional knowledge was so close to
being lost forever.This kind of
opportunity to preserve traditional wisdom only occurs through interfaith
work.This also meant that the Lost
& Endangered Religions Project could be an organizational “partner” with
“the new group”.

After lunch, we all took a walk to the mercado (market), just a few blocks away.

Yoland was delighted to find fruit she can’t get in the US.Tata was delighted to find chapulines (grasshoppers toasted with
garlic, lime juice, and salt made with an extract of agave worms).He bought a bag to munch on as we walked and
was surprised to find that I have had them before and love munching them, too.Over the next few days, many jokes were made
about us eating “bugs”.

Chapulines -- crunchy bugs, yum! (Photo from WikiCommons)

Back at Jonathan’s and back to work… Over the course of the
rest of the afternoon we came up with a draft Vision and Mission
statement for the new group.

We acknowledged that with the difficulties we have with
communication, the process of discussing the proposed name, vision, and mission
will take time.We should expect this
and not be concerned, since it is the only way that we can make sure that
everyone will be involved in the decisions.This goes right to the core of who we are and how we will operate.

At this point, it was time for dinner, so we agreed to sleep
on the proposed name, vision, and mission and see if anything came to us in the
night.

SATURDAY opened with the usual meditation, followed by
another treatment with Tata.After
breakfast, we reconvened.Jonathan said
that he was excited by the proposed name and that one of Tata’s projects had
reminded him of the project with which he had been involved when he first
joined the Spirituality & the Earth CC called “Love & Care of
Creation”.

It turned out that, after agreeing to “sleep on” the
proposed name, etc., each of us had had unusual dreams the preceding
night.

-- Tata had
dreamed about the five of us working with young people to protect sacred
sites & ancestral lands from corporate exploitation.Strangely enough, all of us were 26 years old
in the dream.(As I think about this
now, this might relate to the importance of the number 13 in Mayan
cosmology.)

-- I had
dreamed about a benign virus that spread across the world that did nothing but
change people’s genders.Some feared it,
some embraced it, but most accepted it as part of a new reality.Since it was possible to be re-infected,
folks’ genders were constantly changing, resulting in a world of greater
balance.

-- Raul had
dreamed of a mountain cave in which was a Mesoamerican pyramid glowing with
many colors.

-- Yoland
had woken in the night feeling the presence of Sofia,
a woman who'd been part of the Guatemala
group.She said that she also felt a
strong feminine energy manifesting in our work.

We interpreted these as being favorable for the name we had
come up with.

We discussed a descriptive “subtitle” for the new group,
something like “A Global Network of Indigenous Spiritualities”, for
example.We kicked around many different
versions of subtitles, including some sent in from Sofia (indigenous Mapuche / Chile) and from Calixto (indigenous Aymara / Bolivia).We eventually decided on three that would be
circulated, but in the process we agreed on an important Principle: Each people
would be encouraged to translate not just the words of our materials into their
own languages, but the concepts into their own idiom.For example, many of the Latin American groups
use the term “cosmovisión” to
describe their worldviews, but “cosmovision” doesn’t really work in American
English.“Spiritual worldview” might be
closer.So, whatever subtitle we agree
on, it will be phrased somewhat differently in different cultures.

We revisited our proposed Vision and Mission statements and tweaked them slightly,
before moving on to organizational design.Raul and Tata each explained how their cultures’ cosmovisiónes related to the possible design of an indigenous
networking organization.I explained
CoG’s structure and how I view it as a possible way to implement the concepts
both Raul and Tata had described.There
was quite a bit of interest in this and I will be writing up a description for
the wider group to consider.

After a break, we started looking at how all of this could
be implemented in the following areas: administrative team, communication,
resources, development, and capacity building.I suggested a possible logo that could be individually modified to
incorporate the symbols and images sacred to each group; for example, in Latin America, the images of the Condor, the Eagle, and
the Quetzal are important and could be incorporated.We assigned primary responsibility for the
next phase of moving this all forward.I
will be working organizational design, communication (especially in English),
and resource development.

Los Chinelos -- the restaurant.

We broke for lunch and the five of us, with Margarita, went
to a nearby restaurant, Los Chinelos.

Chinelo in costume. (WikiCommons)

Chinelos are local
folk figures prominent in a parade and festival that just so happened to be
happening that day.They represent
conquistadors and each district of the town has their own distinct version of
the traditional costume.

Elfos, with "la madre de Don"

After lunch, Jonathan and Margarita went home, while the rest of
us went in search of a photographer.Tata said that he needed five studio photographs of me to take home with
him to use in ceremonies as part of my treatment.We ended up wandering all over town as one
place was closed for the festival, another had gone out of business, etc.We finally found a place and had the photos
taken.While we waited for them to be
developed, Raul wandered off.He
returned to tug my arm and say “Brujos!” – “Witches!” – and that I had to
follow him.He led us all to a New-Agey
store called “Elfos” – “Elves” – that sold statues of elves, gnomes, fairies, and
yes, witches.(BTW, at least in this
part of Mexico,
“brujo” is a neutral word with no negative connotation.)

Raul pointed to the figure by the door and identified her as
“la madre de Don”.I suspected that the
young, vaguely Gothy woman behind the counter might be a Neopagan of some sort,
but wasn’t sure how public she might be.I asked if there was a store in town that might have books on Wicca in
Spanish.She doubted it, but gave me
directions to a place that might.(As it
turned out, we never had time to find that shop.)

Back at Jonathan’s we continued with our work.Yoland read letters from Sofia and Calixto
with input for our meeting.We wrapped
things up with preliminary plans for a meeting of the wider Guatemala group next year.Yoland and I will be doing most of the
research and fundraising for this event.If we hold it in the US,
I hope we can engage some of CoG’s event-planning expertise in whatever part of
the country ends up being selected.

That wrapped up most of our work and we had a relaxing
dinner and evening.

Wall art in the monastery.

SUNDAY I didn’t have a treatment with Tata planned, so I
could sleep in ‘til 7:30.After breakfast, the “gang of five” met to
see if there was anything left to wrap up.After a short session, we all went of to the Cathedral behind the
market, a few blocks away.There was a
small processional event going on, but we were bound for the museum housed in
the old monastery attached to the Cathedral.

The local Museum.

I had seen the museum before on a previous trip, so I made a
beeline for the museum shop, looking for books on local folklore and
archaeology that might be difficult to acquire in the States.(Now that I’m opening a library, I always
feel like I’m “shopping for two”.)The clerk
was very helpful and I found books on local legends, the Maya, the culture
& history of Tepoztlan, etc.I was
particularly impressed by issues of arqueologia
MEXICANA and picked up a couple on Central American calendar systems (after
running them by Tata).I think I’ll be
ordering several back issues.

Jonathan and Margarita went back to the hacienda ahead of
us, to meet a young man Jonathan had hired to guide us to the Pyramid on the mountain
overlooking Tepoztlan.I was charged
with making sure that our party didn’t dawdle in the market, but got back
before noon to meet the
guide.However, Sunday is market day, so
the market had doubled in size and was full of temptations.Tata was trapped by two stalls selling
various resinous incenses, while Yoland discovered a stall selling her favorite
fruit, which she cannot get in the US.I kept up the nudging and we got home by noon, but the guide was late.

Torn sign at pyramid.

Jonathan suggested that, while we waited, we could take a
walk around the corner to see another Pyramid.About ten years ago, a local was expanding their driveway when they
encountered ancient stonework.Archaeologists
were called in and then soon determined that the stone wall was the terrace of
a Pyramid… the top terrace of a
Pyramid!In other words, the now-buried
mass of the Pyramid lies under the
streets of downtown Tepoztlan.Aside
from putting a fence around the terrace and setting up an explanatory sign, no
further work was done.

Pyramid under other stuff.

When we got to the site, Jonathan was horrified to discover
that the sign had been torn and the site was getting lost amid the surrounding
stalls and surmounting driveway. Jonathan said that he planned to write the town council
about this.I offered a letter as
Director of the Lost & Endangered Religions project, expressing my dismay
at this disregard for the rich cultural and archaeological heritage of
Tepoztlan.

Back at the house, the guide arrived and we all drove off
into the mountains above Tepoztlan.Some
may remember that I tried to reach the Pyramid on my own a few years ago, but
got lost in the mountains.This time,
with a guide, we reached the site, but only after nearly an hour of
increasingly difficult terrain.

This, quickly became...

... this!

300 metal stairs to the pyramid.

What we had been told would be an easy 20-minute walk was
actually much more difficult.With no
warning about this, Yoland was in sandals and soon started having real difficulty.We passed a waterfall and I gathered water
for the Waters of the World.The last
stage of reaching the Pyramid was a 300 step metal staircase.At the base of the stairs, the path we had
come in on joined the path that came up directly from Tepoztlan – a long
stairway that we had hoped to avoid by driving around and coming in from
above.By this time, the locals coming
up from town had become a swarm of hundreds of people.

Weekend Pyramiders

It appeared that the Pyramid was a well-known
local picnic / party / make-out site. To make matters worse, some guy was doing aura-cleansings in
the center of the Pyramid and blowing a conch every few minutes.

Mayan ceremony

Even so, Tata led us in a Mayan ceremony at
the top, using four colors of maize in a quartered circle (barely visible in
the photo below) and the Waters of the World.We all spoke with the local spirits about caring for and protecting this place and offered our
help.We also got the only photo of all
of us together on this trip.

Me, Raul, Jonathan, Yoland, & Tata

None of us relished the idea of revisiting the long trek
back to the car in the baking heat.Jonathan said that he
would send the guide back to get the car and drive it to his house, while we
could take the stairs down to town.This
sounded simple enough.It had been so
many years since Jonathan had last done this that he had forgotten that the way
down was 2 miles of stairs!

Part of the 2 mile route down.

The view
back down to Tepoztlan. (Jonathan’s house is in the middle of
the photo.)

And “stairs” is being generous.Most of the route was just one rock lower
than another – some sharply volcanic, some treacherously smooth river rock,
many wobbly, all at uneven heights.While the others got ahead of us – carrying the only remaining full
water bottles – I stayed with Yoland.Her inappropriate shoes and shorter legs were making this really hard
going for her.After an hour or so in
the hot sun, we were feeling seriously dehydrated and wobbly on our feet.Yoland slipped, twisting her ankle and
cutting her leg.We moved at a much
slower pace and it started getting dark.We grew concerned about being on the “stairs” with NO light.I started seriously
considering a med-evac as soon as I could get a cellphone signal.

Yoland persevered and as soon as we got a cell signal, we
just called Margarita and asked her to send someone up from town with water.Raul arrived about 45 minutes later.We made our way slowly down to town and
arrived about a half-hour after sunset.Needless to say, we didn’t hold our planned business meeting that night,
but collapsed into bed after a late supper.

MONDAY started early with another treatment from Tata.After breakfast, we all got in Jonathan’s and
Margarita’s van to visit the nearby site of Xochicalco.We had planned to visit Teotihuacan, but Margarita had realized that
we would spend hours in travel time and had looked for a site closer to
home.She and Jonathan had visited
Xochicalco – only about 45 minutes away – and been impressed.

Hilltop city extending to man-made lake in distance.

I am unsure how to report on this site.On the one hand it consists of amazingly
preserved structures in a visually dramatic hilltop setting, with significance
for the history of astronomy / astrology, including an underground solar /
lunar observatory, and with very few visitors and no stalls / shops to spoil
the experience.On the other hand, when
I asked our guide if he wished the site was better known he said “Absolutely
not!”They are happy with the site’s
relative obscurity and consequent lack of intrusion by the modern world.In Mexico, commerce usually trumps
archaeology and tourist sites quickly get overrun not just with tourists, but
the many businesses that serve them – selling souvenirs, fast food, etc.There is only one text on the site in English
– a map / pamphlet only available onsite.To respect their wishes and to protect this site for as long
as possible, I’ll resist gushing as much as I would like and only show images
that have already been shared with the public.

Check the site out on Wikipedia.Xochicalco (“the house of flowers”) was the
center of a trading network based on the shared worship of Quetzalcoatl /
Kukulcan and Tlaloc / Chaac. During its
250 or so years of operation (650-900 CE), it housed Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, and
other communities all at the same time.The
site exposed today was the shared administrative center, but each of the
participating cultures had their own
sectors and all the surrounding hilltops hide the pyramids of their own administrative acropolises.

In 743 CE, the astronomers of each of the participating
communities predicted a solar eclipse.They came together in a “Congress of the Astronomers” to discuss this
and come up with a single calendar for all of them to use.The Temple of Quetzalcoatl
was built to commemorate this.It shows
astronomers from each of the participating city-states, with distinctive garb
and physical appearance, each with an image of a mouth devouring the Moon.Feathered serpents weave them all
together.On the front of the temple (in
the center of the image above on the right) is a glyph representing the eclipse.From that glyph a hand extends down to our
left, pushing away a glyph representing the old calendar.Another hand extends down to our right,
pulling a large rope that is attached to a glyph representing the new calendar.

Can you see the hands in the center of the carving?

There is also a “Temple
of the Pillars”, on the top of which stood pillars inscribed with the new calendar
system for all to see.In addition, all
the old calendar systems were inscribed on pillars that were buried under the
center of this temple.

One of five ballcourts. Players at Xochicalco were not sacrificed, as at other Mesoamerican sites. The guide believed that this was due an abundance of food at Xochicalco making such sacrifice unnecessary.

Deep under the city there is a series of caves, some of
which have carefully placed and maintained opening to the surface, allowing the
Sun and Moon to shine down onto a pool of water.Their reflections off the water would then
illuminate the chambers.These were
observatories where the positions of the luminaries were tracked.

With only the central acropolis uncovered, a LOT remains to be discovered.I recommend visiting this site before
tourists discover it.

Restaurante "El Brujo"

That evening, after another marvelous dinner prepared by
Margarita and Gudelia, I took everyone for dessert at a local restaurant – El
Brujo.Unlike the United States, at least in this part of Mexico
“brujo” or “bruja” are neutral terms, without negative connotation.A hit restaurant across the street from the
cathedral can be named “El Brujo” without anyone batting an eye.

That’s it.We were
all exhausted and started calling this the “oh ah summit”, since none of us
could take a step down without blurting out “Oh!” or “Ah!” in discomfort.Still, I always travel with the motto “What
does not kill me or leave me permanently disfigured will make a great story
later.”We had a wonderful time, got a
lot of work done, and hope to see it all bear fruit in increased networking and
mutual support between indigenous spiritualities worldwide.I’ll keep you informed as things progress.